
HARTFORD, Connecticut – Since his memorable victory in the 2021 Travelers Championship, Harris English had struggled with his golf game, largely because of a significant hip injury.
But after persistence in the gym and lots of help from coach Justin Parsons, including tweaking his swing to take pressure off it moving forward, English finally began to see progress on the golf course last year.
The hours and hours of work on and off the course finally paid the ultimate dividends on Saturday January 25 for the native of Valdosta, Ga.
Despite hitting only four fairways and nine greens in regulation in the blustery final round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, Calif., English held onto his first 54-hole lead in four years, shooting a gutty 1-over-par 73 to win the Farmers Insurance Open by one stroke over Sam Stevens. While several players came and went on the leaderboard, it was the steady English who parred the last 12 holes to finish 72 holes at 8-under 280 and secure his fifth PGA Tour victory but first in 1,308 days.

“When you kind of get in those ruts, you kind of lose your competitiveness, you lose the fun in shaping shots and hitting different shots,” English said. “I spent a lot of the offseason working on some technique stuff. (Parsons) said it was time to get back to playing. … I knew it was going to be a tough (final) day, but I love that. I love this golf course when it plays really tough. As a leader coming into the final round, you kind of like that, that it’s going to be a grind.”
English, 35, had ended another lengthy victory drought at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell in 2021 when he made a 28-foot birdie putt on the eighth playoff hole to beat Kramer Hickok as darkness descended. It was the longest playoff in the history of a tournament that began as the Insurance City Open in 1952 and matched the second-longest playoff in PGA Tour history.
Parsons set English’s latest win in motion on the day before the start of the tournament by offering a simple message: You need to stop being like everybody else. But in the process of chasing improvement, English forgot what got him his first four titles, what Parsons believes truly separates him from the rest.
“I need you to grind out competitive scores,” Parsons told English. “When he was at his best, whatever was working or wasn’t … he always found a way to shoot a better score than he should’ve shot.”
The scoring average on Torrey Pines South was 73.6, with narrow fairways, long rough, fast greens and strong winds being the kind of setup that English gravitates toward. Ever since his junior days, English has thrived when conditions are “U.S. Open tough.”
“You have to play chess,” said English, who notched his first victory since daughter Emilia was born 18 month ago. “You’ve got to miss in the right spots, you’ve got to grind out there and pars are good and that’s kind of all you’re trying to do.”

English had fared quite well at Torrey Pines. He finished runner-up to Jason Day in 2015, losing to the Aussie on the first playoff hole. Six years later, he contended in the 2021 U.S. Open and finished third to Jon Rahm, who birdied the final two holes. In total, English had five top-15s at Torrey Pines.
So last week was a continuation of the previous positive results at Torrey Pines for English, who underwent significant surgery in February 2022 to repair a torn labrum in his right hip. He was back playing in four months, but he was far from the golfer he had been. Parsons believes English didn’t fully return to 100 percent until early 2024, despite a successful 2023 campaign. Not only did English have to build the strength back up in his right side, he also had to adjust to a body that was far more mobile.
“He went from 6 to 8 degrees of rotation to having 30 degrees,” Parsons said. “The surgery was no joke.”
The two worked on posture and alignment changes better suited for English’s post-surgery body while also limiting the stress on his repaired hip. English is one of Parsons’ hardest working clients, and English implemented the changes quickly and effectively. He finished 57th in the FedExCup a year ago and carded 11 top-25s to only four missed cuts. But the high-end results weren’t there, pushing Parsons to his range session pep talk. It wasn’t another swing drill that was going to put English over the edge.
“The things that make you special are untrainable, the competitiveness, the focus,” Parsons told English. “You also have to be yourself … I need you to stop being like everybody else.”
English eschewed the hope of swinging perfectly last week, of hitting all the ideal Trackman numbers or of looking perfectly on plane. The University of Georgia grad committed to playing free, stepping onto the next tee box and hitting the shot he saw. He could trust that under pressure more than any swing feel. So even as he hit just one fairway over his first 13 holes, he stayed composed.
English avoided any blow-ups, dropping shots at the first and fifth holes to fall two behind Andrew Novak. But English bounced back with a birdie at the sixth and regained the lead as Novak bogeyed the seventh, eighth and 10th holes.
English arrived at the 18th hole at 8-under and with a one-shot lead over Stevens, who had carded a 68, the low score in the final round, to grab the clubhouse lead. Like many drives that day, English missed the fairway but he calmly punched out. From 120 yards, English hit a wedge to the middle of the green and routinely two-putted for the victory.
“It doesn’t have to look pretty,” English said, “you’ve just got to get the job done.”
It’s exactly what English managed to do after more years of frustration.
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